The development follows the acquisition of 37.5 per cent stake in the air-carrier by South-India based media baron, Kalanithi Maran.
Aiming to acquire a controlling stake in SpiceJet, media magnate Kalanithi Maran on Monday launched an open offer to acquire an additional 20 per cent stake in the no-frill airline for an estimated Rs 479.29 crore (Rs 4.8 billion).
The fresh equity infusion comes at a time its rival Kingfisher Airline is struggling to be air-borne due to a severe cash-crunch.
The average revenue per passenger during the reporting quarter increased 24 per cent, while the number of passengers carried rose 26 per cent.
The Indian aviation sector is on the cusp of a change as airlines look to induct a record number of aircraft. This, analysts said, will put the sector on a growth runway, though keeping it viable for only long-term investors. According to Vinit Bolinjkar, head of research at Ventura Securities, expectations of strong air traffic, coupled with low penetration, is the prime reason for a solid long-term outlook.
As many as 31 evacuation flights will be operated to neighbouring countries of crisis-hit Ukraine and will bring back more than 6,300 Indians stranded in the eastern European nation, according to official sources.
Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday flew on SpiceJet's special flight between Delhi and Gwalior using Boeing's 737 Max plane that has been allowed to return to service after two and half years. All Max planes were grounded in India by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on March 13, 2019, three days after the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max plane near Addis Ababa, which had left 157 people, including four Indians, dead. Along with Scindia, SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh and Boeing India president Salil Gupte were also present on the special flight on Tuesday.
SpiceJet, on the verge of a shutdown two years ago, is now looking at joining a burgeoning global league of low-cost long-haul airlines by providing a Rs 30,000 to-and-fro fare to western European destinations. Chairman and managing director Ajay Singh elaborates.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) suspended the licences of 92 pilots in 2022 for violating safety norms, which was more than double the 2021 figure. The number of scheduled flights (domestic and international) in India increased by 32.74 per cent to 1.3 million in 2022, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium. A DGCA official stated that the minimum period of licence suspension in 2022 was one month and the maximum was three years.
The Chennai-based airline promoted by Kalanithi Maran had reported a net loss of Rs 39.26 crore (Rs 392.6 million) in the same period the prior year.
Crisis-hit Go First has sought various interim directions from the National Company Law Tribunal, including restraining lessors from taking back aircraft and regulator DGCA from taking any adverse action against the airline. The Wadia group-owned airline, which has liabilities worth Rs 11,463 crore, has sought voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings and the plea is set to be heard by the Delhi bench of the NCLT on Thursday. Go First has cancelled all its flights for three days starting from May 3.
Low cost carrier SpiceJet on Monday announced a special fare of just Rs 99 on 21,000 select seats on the occasion of its first anniversary.
The Q400 NextGen turboprop aircraft from Bombardier can seat 78 passengers and has low noise and vibration-free features.
Despite the best ever quarterly net profit of Rs 3,091 crore during April-June of financial year 2023-24 (Q1FY24), challenges are mounting for InterGlobe Aviation-run IndiGo in the near term, said analysts. Given this, most brokerages have retained their ratings from 'buy to underperform', as well as their target price for the stock. For instance, Motilal Oswal Financial Services has retained its 'neutral' rating on the scrip as it believes the low-cost airline is facing teething issues at present.
Low-cost air carrier SpiceJet is looking at ways to raise around $75 million (Rs 335 crore). The airline has given the mandate to IDFC-SSKI for raising funds through preferential allotment of shares and strategic sale. "IDFC-SSKI is working on it and the money will be raised through both preferential allotment of shares and strategic sale," said a Mumbai-based investment banker, who is associated in this deal.
Capa lauded govt's efforts in rescuing SpiceJet.
Aviation regulator DGCA has asked Tata Group-owned Air India to repair its aircraft after a passenger complained on social media on Monday about the plane's shabby interiors, including a broken armrest, officials said. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had last Wednesday grounded a SpiceJet aircraft over a passenger's complaint of dirty seats and malfunctioning cabin panels. The SpiceJet plane took to the skies a day later after all the suggested repairs were effected.
The aviation regulator is investigating the incidents and both planes, with Pratt and Whitney engines, will fly only when cleared by it, the officials said.
The country's largest airline IndiGo and Air India have asked passengers to reach Delhi airport at least 3.5 hours prior to domestic departures.
Budget carrier SpiceJet on Friday triggered off a price war in the aviation industry announcing one-way discounted fares starting Rs 1,999 for travel between September and December this year, prompting IndiGo to follow with a similar offer soon after.
Avani or SpiceJet: which is the love of his life? For Ajay Singh, that's a tough one to answer.
'Building a whole product with the railways was challenging; we had to figure out how to load and unload a train when it stops for only about five minutes at a station.' 'We also helped them understand the revenues this would generate for them.'
Premier no-frills carrier IndiGo on Monday said there is no truth in reports that its competitor Spicejet is acquiring 7.5 per cent stake in it.
Loans for Indian airlines have dried up as banks have become cautious to lend to the sector.
India's domestic air passenger traffic nearly doubled to 1.25 crore in January compared to 64.08 lakh recorded in the year-ago period, according to official data released on Monday. In January, IndiGo saw its domestic market share decline for the fifth consecutive month at 54.6 per cent. It carried 68.47 lakh passengers last month.
Delhi-based low-cost carrier SpiceJet reported a first quarter loss of Rs 129.2 crore from a profit of Rs 18 crore a year earlier.
A video on Twitter showed one of the plane's engines on fire and sparks flying at the time of taxiing at the airport.
Budget airline SpiceJet's net loss widened to Rs 321.51 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2014.
A senior DGCA official said that the flight has been grounded and a detailed probe has been ordered into the matter. All the passengers are safe.
The court had on July 21 issued summons to the firm, Maran and Natrajhen and directed them to appear today after taking cognizance of two I-T complaints filed against them.
Tata Group-owned Air India, under its new chief executive officer and managing director Campbell Wilson, is optimising its domestic strategy under which the carrier is "densifying" its presence on metro-to-metro routes and exiting from unviable ones, Business Standard has learnt. Wilson took charge on July 25. Air India has increased its flights on metro-to-metro routes such as Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Bengaluru, Mumbai-Chennai, Mumbai-Bengaluru, and Hyderabad-Mumbai between June and November this year.
Jet's air operator certificate will lapse on May 19.
All these male politicians are unlikely to risk their sinecures to speak up in support of a bunch of women wrestlers who have chosen to challenge a politician who appears to have the ruling regime in a stranglehold, points out Kanika Datta.
Aviation is a juicy target. It's a 24x7 industry, which cannot afford delays or loss of customer credibility.
This is the third incident of technical malfunction on a Go First aircraft in two days.
On Monday, the fifth Air India flight landed in Delhi from Bucharest with 249 Indian nationals while the sixth flight arrived from Budapest here with 240 Indian nationals, the officials said.
West Asian carriers are up against Air India and IndiGo in the battle for seats on lucrative international routes.
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed new airline Akasa is in talks with US aerospace company Boeing for buying up to 100 737 Max aircraft. Former Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube and his family members are promoters while ex-IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh is a board member of the airline. The airline is in negotiation with Boeing and has reached out to the government to recertify the aircraft which has been grounded since 2018 after two crashes killing 349 persons, according to sources in the know.
This is the third instance in the last three days when the aviation regulator grounded a plane after an incident.
With airlines reporting multiple technical malfunction incidents, aviation regulator DGCA on Monday said it conducted spot checks and found that there is an insufficient number of engineering personnel certifying planes of various carriers before their departure. Before each departure, an aircraft is checked and certified by an aircraft maintenance engineer (AME). The DGCA has now issued guidelines for airlines on the deployment of AME personnel and directed them to comply by July 28.
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